ZEE5 India has launched ZEE5 Super Family which is an attempt to gamify the experience for fiction TV show viewers, it aims to bring the GEC audience to their favourite ZEE TV characters in an exciting format; with the help of using the exiting user base of the OTT platform.
ZEE5 Super Family allows viewers to pick their favourite on- screen characters across TV shows obviously from Zee TV and curate their own Super Family. Roles such as Saas, Bahu, Beta, Dost, etc to fill in, the players can place bets on how the chosen characters will act out in the day’s TV episode and stand to win gratifications such as car, smartphones, gift vouchers and ZEE5 subscriptions in case their predictions come true.
The platform has launched over 100 original shows since the launch and is gung-ho about catering to the original content needs of the market.
Medianews4u caught up with Yogesh Manwani, Head AVOD, SEO, News & Stories, ZEE5 India to understand the platform’s performance, the new initiative and a lot more.
Read on.
How has 2019 been for the platform? What is the subscriber base reached to?
It’s been a good year for us. We are the fastest growing OTT brand overthe last one and a half years.Wehave peaked 8.9 million DAUs, with a reach of 80 million plus.
Our video views are also growing. AVOD and SVOD side backed by all thecontent line up too is growing thanks to our great content line across regions andlanguages.
Tell us about ZEE5 Super Family?
ZEE5 Super Familyis going to be the first ever fiction based gaming show with a fantasyleague, where viewers who have a great love and a huge fanfollowing for the characters will be able to build their own familiesand engage and deepen their relationships with these characters.
I think ZEE5 Super Family is a great opportunity for consumers wanting to engage and deepen their bonds with their characters. And then at the other end, it’s a great opportunity for advertisers;because it offers them a great opportunity to reach out to their
consumers in a highly engaged state through various means possible using the Zee Super Family platform.
The reason on why ZEE5 stands amongst the competition is that there isa lot that goes into making a successful brand. Like we keep saying pressing play and expecting the video to play over there is a very normal expectation. But there’s a lot that happens at a product level at a tech level, at a content level. And then all of that goes in making the brand. So I think it’s everything put together working towards a unified goal and a strategy.
What are some key consumption trends across the original content that you are creating very aggressively?
In terms of consumption very clearly, there is a certain set of audience who, come to the platform to consume their favourite TV shows. There is a certain set of audience who comes to the platform to consume movies, whether it is the latest movies like Dream Girl, or the library that we have of some really established popular titles.
There are other genres that are getting built up, for example news, kids and we also have a food section now, and these are the other upcoming sections that are seeing more and more traction. So whether it’s news, or Maharashtra elections, or stuff that we’ve curated on food.
What are the kinds of brand categories that have advertised on ZEE5and can you remember one or two brands that have benefitted from the association?
It wouldn’t be only one brand, we have multiple variants that have come on the platform across categories, whether it’s FMCG, whether it’s e-commerce, whether it be BFSI, whether its services consumer durables, we have multiple brands that have come and partnered with uson the platform, they’ve seen the value, both in terms of the audience
that we deliver, and also the ad suite that we offer, which helps them in kind of segmenting, targeting and reaching out to their target audience in a relevant contextual and brand safe environment.
We have seen a whole host of brands that have come to us and our brand partners’ slate continues to expand month on month, and the trajectory is only very encouraging and positive for us.
How many original shows are you planning to create and can you shed some light on the plan for next year?
Right from the launch of the platform, we’ve always believed that our differentiation has been in the power of content in the regional space. The fact is that today we are the only OTT platform to offer content in almost 12 languages, nobody else offers that.
We’ve always believed in the power of the regional content. And we’ve not only gone ahead and dubbed content in regionals, but also gone and actually produced a large number of originals in regional languages and we will continue to invest in that strategy because that has worked for us.
Edge of the seat content always sees more traction….. How has Zee5 used that genre to increase users on the platform?
We have a complete slate of crime and thrillers that have done really well for the platform. This month we have The Shuttlecock Murder releasing on the platform which again is a murder mystery. Rangbaaz which did exceptionally well has also been renewed for another season.
We have been present across genres and we believe in the kind of investing because there’s a variety that we offer to consumers and they liketo indulge in variety.
What has been the impact of the economic slowdown on ZEE5?
I think digital and OTT is a growing sector. I think from the perspective of consumers, there are more and more consumers who are entering this universe and are adopting this medium for their entertainment means, and that growth is only gone upwards.
